Lenin

• Bolshevik authority


  Quickly established after the Bolshevik revolution
• Council of Peoples Commissars (Sovnarkom)


  Set up with specific government responsibilities e.g. foreign affairs controlled by Trotsky
• All Russian Extraordinary Commission for Fighting Counter-revolution (the Cheka)


  Headed by a Polish communist from December 1917, main aim was to prevent revolutionary movements
• Democratic centralism


  Control of Russia done by politicians elected by the Russian people
• German peace terms were harsh


  Angered patriotic Russians and split the Bolshevik leadership
• Peace treaty (Brest-Litovsk)


  Russia had to give up Ukraine and pay 3 billion roubles in reparations
• Opposition increased


  Led to a civil war in January 1918
• Civil war defeated by


  Red Army, Cheka and War Communism
• Needed the approval of congress to rule Russia, proved easy as right Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks had walked out in protest
• Early reforms


  8 hour day, introduction of social insurance, class distinctions abolished, army ranks abolished, schools controlled by the state, nationalisation of banks, factories and railways controlled by workers, religion condemned, marriages became a civil service
• Decree on peace


  Called for an immediate truce and armistice, solved war problems by appealing for an immediate end
• Decree on Land


  Division and distribution of land to be done by village soviets
• New Economic Policy (NEP)


  Peasants paid tax in food and received some of the surplus, freedom of enterprise restored in industry, private traders (Nepmen) permitted to buy and sell goods on an open market, restored a stable soviet currency
• when Lenin came to power he brought in the idea of marxism which contains the superstructure and base
• superstructure 


  the education, family, religion, politics and media, it maintains and legitimates the base
• the base 


  al the thing needed to produce such as machines, factories, land and raw materials
• the labour theory of values basic claim

  the value of an item can be measured by the average number of labour hours required to produce it
• war communism 


  take form the people who 'don't need it' (peasants) and give to the troops and workers
• how was red terror enforced

  by the Cheka
• the bolsheviks took control of factories, mines, workshops and railways during war communism forcing workers to work in factories
• War Communism


  • Used by the Bolsheviks to run industries essential to the war effort
  • Nationalised industry
  • Banned strikes
  • Introduced internal passports
  • Used managers and elite workers to control the workers
• Cheka


  • Political police force created in 1917 (replaced by GPU in 1922)
  • Used terror (e.g. Gulags from 1918) to eliminate opposition
• Politburo


  Main policy making body of the USSR, the senior committee of the Communist Party
• Class warfare


  • Used to terrorise the middle classes and all hostile social groups
  • Popular with the workers and soldiers
  • Made it difficult for people to criticise a new government
• Lenin


  • Founder and major political thinker of the Bolshevik Party
  • Widely respected
• • The Cheka aimed to remove all forms of political opposition in a campaign that became known as the Red Terror
  • Historian Robert Service estimates 500,000 were sent to Gulags during over this period
• Bolsheviks


  • Defeated the Whites in the Civil War
  • Seen as defending Russia from foreign imperialists and interventionists
• Trotsky's Red Army


  • Effective and strong
  • Able to put down significant uprisings or rebellions, for example the Kronstadt Rebellion
  • Limited challenges to Bolshevik power
• Democratic centralism


  From 1921 meant that all decisions made by Lenin and the Politburo had to be followed by the entire party
• Bolsheviks


  • Controlled the media
  • Only newspapers like Pravda could be published
  • Lenin able to make sure through censorship that the Russian people only heard what he wanted them to hear
• • In 1921, Lenin announced a ban on factions within the Communist Party
  • Party members were not allowed to form groups independent of Lenin's leadership
• Lenin ended Russia's involvement in the First World War


  1. Lead to huge territorial and industrial losses in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

  2. When war ended in 1918, Lenin just ignored the treaty
• NEP


  Meant that the Bolsheviks controlled the 'commanding heights of industry'
• Bolsheviks


  • Increased the use of propaganda that glorified Lenin and their party
  • Lenin heralded as the 'Father of the Nation'
• USSR


  • Established in 1922 to overcome ethnic divisions which may have threatened communism
  • Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan all had their own government as part of a federal system and sent representatives to the Congress of Republics
• • The Bolsheviks banned all other parties in 1921
  • This created a one party state with no challenges to their power
• Sovnarkom


  Set up by Lenin as the new body of government of the USSR
• • The Bolsheviks closed the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, refusing to take part in a socialist coalition
  • This made Russia a one party state
• After 1921, only the Communist Party were allowed to field candidates for election to the Soviets
• 25-2nd October All-Russian Congress of Soviets (big meeting of main members of soviets). SRs and Mensheviks wanted a coalition. Lenin not sharing power with anyone. They walked out. Gave Bolsheviks more power